About the trail…
The concept of the Mamre Donkey Trail was to create a tourism project that combines basic biodiveristy conservation functions with a locally based eco-tourism project, run and owned by local people.
In so doing, it is hoped that both people and the natural environment will benefit from such an undertaking.
Local Cape Town based company “Touching the Earth Lightly” (TEL) was contracted to scope, design and develop the project. TEL has had experience in establishing such projects for Cape Nature, South African National Parks, WWF and The Working for Water Program.
The project is implemented by Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers (CREW) with funding from the Claremont Rotary Club in Cape Town and aims to promote community-driven conservation of Mamre’s highly threatened vegetation by linking it to local tourism opportunities and job creation.
CREW has a specific interest in conserving the biodiversity, found in and around Mamre. Many of the species that are found in this area can be found nowhere else in the world.
For conservation efforts to be successful, CREW needs to address issues of job-creation and poverty alleviation simultaneously. Historically, the conservation of threatened species is seen as an activity outside the realms of the tourism industry. In this instance however the project wants to link local people to conservation, through tourism.
TEL started a process of community consultation and arranged a series of workshops and meetings with Mamre residents who identified the
opportunity for a guided, interpreted donkey-cart trail through the Town and its surrounds.
Local residents felt that this should be a half-day excursion for Cape-Town based families, aimed at showcasing the natural, historical and cultural diversity of Mamre in a fun, character full way. It made sense to promote a fun, colorful, traditional, cost-efficient and energy-efficient mode of transport as donkey-drawn carts form the backbone of traditional transport in Mamre. Even today residents use donkey carts to collect fire-wood.
The project has followed simple, traditional design but one that speaks to the bigger-picture issues of biodiversity conservation and job-creation as well. For example, the wood used will be alien wood extracted from the local Mamre Renosterveld Nature Reserve.
The emphasis in building and using the cart is on simple, intelligent, low carbon-footprint design. It demonstrates how humans can “touch the earth lightly”, using the platform of tourism as a stage on which to demonstrate this to families, children and visitors to the town of Mamre.
The concept of the Mamre Donkey Trail was two years in the making, and was the end result of inputs from local residents, tourism groups, CoCT managers, and conservation bodies. We invite you to come and experience the rich and diverse beauty of our country, through the eyes of local Mamre residents.
Dr Guy Preston, the National Programme Leader for Working for Water, has praised the initiative – and particularly the decision to build the donkey carts using invasive alien wood. “The trainers have already demonstrated their considerable skills in using invasive alien plants for value-added industries, and I am particularly interested in what emerges out of this. One of the concerns we have in the utilization of invasive biomass is the damage caused when taking it out of the veldt. Using donkey carts for this purpose would surely be touching the earth lightly, and we shall watch this development with that broader interest as well. Every effort to create jobs and empowerment through sustainable enterprises must be lauded and supported, and we wish the guides every marketing success.”
As we say in Cape Town “Fynbos, fyn-mense”!
For more info about CREW and how you can support its efforts, please visit:
